Fed Up
by bitternessbitesback
Summary: Laney is just so tired of everything. Especially of constantly being mistaken for a guy by everybody, so when Corey says they are entering a 'boy-band' competition she can't help but reflect on some things. (one-shot)


Laney was tired. Tired of people misgendering her, of Trina calling them a 'boy band', of everything. Honestly the only solace in her life sometimes was the knowledge that her band mates knew she was a girl, but didn't care if she acted unladylike most of the time. Or at least that's what she thought, before Corey came up with another one of his stupid schemes. Seriously they were pretty much an everything band due to all of his crazy ideas that somehow end up working. His can do attitude is one of the things that made her fall for him, yet it was also one of the reasons she was upset with him now.

Her and Corey were close as could be, best friends since diapers, together through thick and thin despite everything they've been through. She was around when Trina still went by "Katrina" and was actually a nice person, though that seemed so long ago now. Now she was crazy and the redhead was positive the older teen needed to be institutionalized, though Laney supposed she was getting a bit off track.

You see, her whole life people had mistaken her gender, but they were mostly strangers so it didn't really matter to her what they thought she was. Yeah, she probably didn't help with her perpetually short hair, refusal to conform to gender roles and what was expected of her. Usually she let it slide because she got it, she was at that weird age where people couldn't really tell what gender you were. Hell, that kid Larry from the Newmans was mistaken for a girl sometimes! Still... although it didn't hurt when strangers did it, it certainly did when her own band mates apparently got confused. It all started earlier today actually, when Corey came bursting through the garage yelling excitedly about a new gig he booked.

"Yes!" Kon exclaimed as Kin yelled, "That's awesome!"

"Wow! Really Core?" Laney questioned, "What's the gig?"

"There's a Boy Band competition coming to Peaceville and Mayor Mellow asked us to preform!" He told them, confused as to how the excited energy immediately dissipated.

"We're not a boy band though." She told him as her mood turned sour.

'"Yeah, but that's an easy fix Lanes! People already mistake you for a guy anyway so what's the harm?"

"What's the harm?" She was incredulous! How dare he say that? Laney scoffed as she crossed her arms and fixed her best friend with a glare.

Corey, bless his oblivious heart, continued on despite the tension floating around. "Yeah fella! Nobody will even find out, we could win the prize, and get our name out there!"

"Nobody would find out?" She couldn't stop the look of disbelief before it crossed her face as she simply stared at him for a moment before continuing, "As if! People always realize I'm a chick after, like, five seconds of speaking with me! Besides, "fella", half of our songs have me sharing vocals with you. If they didn't figure it out after we got on stage then they sure would after I sang!"

"Hey, Lanes, calm down." He put his hands up in defense as if that would actually work.

"No Corey! This isn't one of your crazy schemes that somehow end up working! What will we do when the fans we gain from the competition find out I'm a girl? They'll feel betrayed at the fact we lied to them and so will the judges and everybody else! If we ended up winning they would just take the trophy away and we would probably lose all of our fans! So let me ask you one more time, is there really going to be no harm from doing this?"

Corey seemed stunned into silence as he stood, gaping at her like a fish, and unsure about what to say to calm the fiery redhead down. Laney and him rarely ever fought, and when they did it never escalated to this degree so everyone was unsure what to do about it. Kin and Kon exchanged nervous looks between themselves as Laney attempted to calm down and Corey simply stood as if frozen in place. They all stayed like that for half a minute before their killer bass player stormed out of the garage, taking the icy atmosphere with her, but leaving the tension.

So here she was now, moping in her very pink room, hugging her horned stuffed bear to her chest. How on Earth was the blue haired singer so dumb? After everything they'd been through, she was sure Corey had finally been starting to see her as a girl! She participated in a beauty pagent for him, they were able to perform in girl fest because of her, and she really hoped he'd see her as a girl especially after they accidentally kissed! It seemed like he liked it, but maybe that was just her fantasy jading her memory? Plus they haven't talked about it since and now this whole boy band thing, Laney was beginning to think maybe she'd been wrong in her perception of her long-time crush.

Getting up, the green eyed girl walked over to her vanity, and sat on the stool to look in the mirror easily. Leaning in, the young girl scrutinized her face. As she gazed upon her reflection, she couldn't help but wonder how the confusion on her gender happened so easily. She didn't have a mustache! Her voice was a little on the raspy side, sure, but it was still obviously feminine. Even boys who haven't gone through puberty yet had deeper voices than her! It honestly wasn't that hard to figure out, yet people keep doing it! Was it cause she almost never wore a dress? Or cause she wore her red leggings as pants all the time, heaven forbid a woman not wear a skirt! Gasp!

It wasn't fair that if she didn't wear dresses, have long hair, or put on nicer makeup, she was automatically deemed a guy. Like, what was up with that! She was still a girl even if she played basketball, was in a band, and wore heavy black eye makeup! She also liked the color pink, her stuffed animals, her dollhouse her dad made for her, and her tea set too. So what if she enjoys mud fights with the guys, roughhousing with them, and letting her wild side out. If that makes her less of a girl, well that's stupid. Girls aren't meant to sit still, silent, and looking pretty for their whole lives. What an awful fate for her gender to have!

Why did girls have to be one dimensional while boys got to be practically anything they wanted. Yes, Laney likes girly things and wanted to be treated like a lady sometimes, but she also likes guy things and enjoys being seen as one of the guys. What was wrong with that? Why couldn't people just leave well enough alone and care about themselves? It was nobody's business how she presents herself and they should all just butt out!

The redheaded girl was trying to calm down, but not she's angry all over again. It's all Corey's fault too! How dare he say they could pull off being a 'boy band'! How ridiculous honestly. Sure, he's not always the brightest, but this is a new low even for him. No, she wasn't saying he was stupid, he was just so obtuse sometimes! Only ever hearing what he wants and never listens to her! In case he forgot, starting up a band was her idea! She even found out about Kin and Kon a couple months later in the music classroom! Yes, Corey's the band leader, but she's the band founder and manager. Without her none of this would be possible. Hell! Half of his schemes wouldn't work without her reluctant help!

Sighing, Laney gets up, walks over to her bed, and flops face first onto it. She started the band and she loves it so much, but maybe it was time for a break from it for a little while. She doesn't want to quit, but she's just so exhausted of everything that comes with being in a band. The harebrained schemes, her unrequited crush, and the toll she didn't realize came with being 'one of the guys'. More than anything though, she was really upset at the fact said crush didn't think anything of her pretending to be a guy, as if it were easy! As her best friend, he should've known that the gig would make her upset. She didn't even know why Mayor Mellow suggested it in the first place since he knows that she's a girl!

Maybe they should perform, just, you know, without her. That way they could still compete and it wouldn't be a breach of rules. She didn't want them to though and that was where the problem lay. Of course she couldn't ask them to turn down a gig or perform without her, but she couldn't go up there and pretend to be a guy either. This was just one of Corey's crazy schemes she just couldn't get behind this time. Laney put her foot down and meant every word that she said, even if they couldn't do a gig, just this once. The girl really hoped she had gotten through to the blue haired boy of her dreams. Although it was unlikely something actually got through that thick skull of his, she still hoped it had nonetheless.

Suddenly a feeling of dread began to sprout within her, regret rooting in place of anger. Did she go too far earlier? Should she have not yelled at Corey? Was he upset with her now for rejecting his idea so quickly and now he'd never speak to her again? With a gasp Laney shot up from her bed as another terrible thought entered her brain, what if her wanted to kick her out of the band now? She knows she wanted a break, but that was just a fantasy! The last time she had a break from the guys, she had no idea what to do with herself, she missed them too much. If he kicked her out of the band, then who would she eat lunch with in the cafeteria at school? Kate and Ally wouldn't let her near then once she was no longer a member, and she legit only had three friends! Oh gosh, no one would want to talk to her either and she'd end up being ostracized! Not even Larry from the Newmans would take pity on her situation, she bet he didn't stand up to Carrie, he was far too shy to even think about it.

Oh god what did she do! She's probably just lost the only friends she's ever had and will die alone with fifty cats to keep for company since no one would ever want to hangout with a band reject! Or worse, she could live on the streets, jobless since she was never able to finish high school and her parents kick her out for being such a loser! Laney tried telling herself to breathe and calm down, but it wasn't working. She was spiraling and didn't know how to stop. Her poor bear was getting the life squeezed out of him, but it wasn't her fault! Should she go and apologize to the guys? It'd probably be better to go now rather than waiting and having her nightmares become reality.

Once more the girl stands up, taking a deep breath, and walks over to her vanity. She was shocked to see smeared makeup, evidence of her crying that she didn't even know she was doing. Quickly she removed her makeup and reapplied it, an attempt to look as presentable as possible so as to not let anyone know just how affected she really was by all of this. Upon finishing her self imposed task, Laney ran down the stairs and towards the front door, opening it, shocked to see-

"Corey?" She questioned, his hand still up in the air as if to knock.

"L- Laney!" He exclaimed as a shocked look taking place on his features.

"What... are you doing here?"

"I, uh, came to apologize. For before. I wasn't thinking and I shouldn't have accepted the offer in the first place."

"I'm sorry too Core, I took it too far."

"No, Lanes, you were rightfully angry. I went and talked to Mayor Mellow and backed out of the competition."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you were right, we shouldn't trick our fans. Besides, while Kin, Kon, and I could compete on our own, we wouldn't want to. So please don't quit the band!"

"Why would I quit the band?"

"Cause I was insensitive and wasn't listening to you?"

"Core," Laney reached out and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "You never listen to my very right arguments against your ideas."

"That's different cause you're the band manager, you have to reject my crazy ideas at first before going along with them! Not get genuinely upset with me..."

"Corey..."

"No, Laney, it's not your fault, so don't apologize. I'm sorry."

"Thank you... for apologizing. Though, as my best friend you should know better than to pull that crap."

"Yeah, haha," He agreed while his hand went up to rub the back of his head, "Yeah, I should. It was wrong of me to say that there'd be no harm since people mistake you anyway. I know I'm not always the most attentive person in the world and have a terrible case of tunnel vision, but I do know how much it secretly bothers you when people do misgender you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Right, sure dude. As if I don't see you check your reflection every time someone messes up on your gender when you think no one is looking."

The bassist was simply silent for a second before joking, "Wow, way to call me out Core."

"Haha, gotta take the rare chance when it pops up."

"Yeah, that's fair." Suddenly the redhead looked up at her best friend, revelation shining in her eyes as her cheeks turned a light shade of pink, "Why were you looking at me during those times?"

"I wanted to see if you were okay," He shrugged nonchalantly, "Besides I'm always looking at you."

"What?" If possible Laney's face turned even redder and it seemed like the situation finally clicked in Corey's brain.

"Wait! No. Not it the creepy way! Just... in... the normal way?"

"Normal way?" Ah, yes, giving him a hard time was the sure fire way to get over her own embarrassment.

"Ye- yeah! You know, ca- cause you're interesting and my best friend! And you know, sometimes when you're thinking really hard sometimes you make funny faces that are fun to watch."

"Oh, really now?"

It was rare for them to be in this position, Corey blushing like crazy and Laney being the one teasing him. Sure some of the things he said were embarrassing for her too, but she filed away that information to process later when she was alone. Though it seemed like he was avoiding saying anything else for now lest he say something else even more embarrassing. So they stood there for what seemed like forever, simply staring at each other.

Corey then did something she never expected as he glanced down at her lips and his tongue danced out on his own, which of course made Laney look down at his in turn. Was it just her, or did the space between them seem to be getting smaller? The bassist wasn't sure who moved first even though it didn't seem to matter much at the moment as all she could think about was how her long time crush was currently looking at her like he very much wanted to kiss her. It took all her willpower to stop her brain from short circuiting as she placed her hands on his chest, searching his eyes for some kind of prank or hint that this wasn't really what she thought was happening. She didn't see anything negative when she probed so she couldn't help but reach her arms up and hook them around his neck loosely to pull him closer as she leaned up on her tiptoes. Roughly a couple inches left of space, he green eyes fluttered closed, heart nearly pounding out of her chest as-

"Corey?" "Laney?" Two voices simultaneously called out causing both the bassist and singer to split apart, faces a bright as Laney's hair.

Kin and Kon were looking at them, bewildered at the scene before them. Everybody just stood, glancing nervously at each other, unsure about what to do about the situation.

"Uhh..." Corey helpfully supplied. Laney gave an awkward smile and looked at him from the corner of her eye.

"Alright Core! Thanks for the apology, see you all at band practice tomorrow, bye!" Laney exclaimed before running back into her house, up into her room, flopping down onto her bed, and screaming simultaneously out of excitement and frustration.

To think she almost kissed Corey on purpose this time and those dumb twins just had to interrupt! Couldn't they have waited until after her and the singer kissed? Like, seriously, the universe must be having hell of a laugh right now. Shaking her head, she let out a sigh of longing, and a goofy grin overtook her face as she smiled into her pillow. Maybe she wasn't such a hopeless romantic after all? Just a sap.


End file.
